Time of the Season
by Aeris Ultimavara
Summary: ..."Her brain was just too tired from the heat to think about what she was saying"... On the hottest day of the year, Lloyd unexpectedly finds himself privy to what may or may not be some of Milly's private opinions about him.


This was written for the game where you have to write a fic based on the first song that comes up when you put your iTunes on shuffle. I got Blake Lewis's version of "Time of the Season."

Disclaimer: I own none of the things I'm writing about. I'm only playing nicely with toys that belong to Sunrise, Bandai, Taniguchi, and the rest of the Code Geass creative team.

* * *

_  
"It's the time of season  
When love runs high."_

"Are you quite alright, dear?" Lloyd asked, looking up from the flower he had been studying and over towards the young woman standing to his left.

Milly said nothing but raised an eyebrow at him over her fan, which she was furiously employing in order to create even the smallest and meagerest of breezes around her face. The rest of her was covered by a very large, very frilly frock -- a recent gift from her fiance.

"Hmm, it _is_ a bit warm today, isn't it?" he remarked lazily, but she saw the smirk on the corner of his mouth.

"Easy for you to say," she retorted, eyeing the loose-fitting linen button-down he wore. She wished her mother hadn't forced her to wear the heavy, constricting dress for this outing.

Ann Ashford had thought the couple needed to spend some "quality time" together, so she arranged a trip for them to the botanical gardens on the hottest day of the year, forced her daughter to wear the most uncomfortable dress in creation as a sign of gratitude to the earl, and proceeded to enjoy the thought of her family regaining its rank from her cool, comfortable home while the pair in question, and especially her daughter, sweated it out under the midday sun.

"Come now, Milly, that dress is 100 percent cotton. A very breathable fabric," Lloyd commented.

"Not when you're wearing ten bloody pounds of it," she shot back, but soon regretted it. Lloyd had been very kind to her and her family, and she didn't want to seem ungrateful for everything he'd done. Her brain was just too tired from the heat and discomfort to think about what she was saying.

"I'm sorry...It really is a lovely gift."

He waved a hand dismissively. "No need for that. I'm not going to divorce you for stating your opinions. Suzaku and Cecile do it to me all the time, and I've survived so far."

Milly smiled a bit at that. While Lloyd was certainly an eccentric personality at times, it was that same eccentricity that made him disregard the usual pomp and circumstance most members of the nobilty proudly insisted on -- a habit which she herself had never been fond of either

"Thanks, Ea...I mean Lloyd." she corrected. She never could've called any of her other potential suitors by their first names. If she had gotten stuck with any of them, she would've been calling them "Lord so-and-so" or "Count whats-his-name" for the rest of her life. If she had to marry someone, she was at least glad it was someone with whom she could be casual.

"Mmhmm..." he muttered distractedly, having gone back to studying the flora. Milly was a bit disappointed that he took her thanks so lightly, but she noticed him tugging at his collar, and after a short silence he looked back at her and said,

"You know, pet, now that you mention it, maybe we _have_ been in the sun a little too long."

"Oh, so you admit I was right," Milly said, affecting smugness. She couldn't help wondering if perhaps it was her oh-so-charming thanks that made him suddenly agitated. Odds were that he really was just bothered by the sun, but it was fun to pretend just the same.

"Yes, there's some lovely shade trees just over there," he pointed to a little grove clustered at the top of a steep hill some distance away.

"Make me climb that and you'll have to drag me back down. I'm liable to swoon from the extertion in all this heat. "

"All the best countesses do. My aunt Hildegunn used to have a spell every day at three o'clock."

"Would she really?" Milly asked eagerly, far too intrigued to keep up the little game of wit. She couldn't resist an opportunity to laugh at people who took themselves too seriously, and this aunt of Lloyd's sounded like a prime example.

"Of course," he replied. "Eventually Uncle Balder learned to be conveniently out of the house by 2:50, but auntie had forgotten how _not_ to do it by that point."

Milly laughed at that. "She should've taken it onstage. I bet she would've made a great actress."

"Oh yes, it was all very theatrical."

"I've seen some wonderful swooners at the theater," said Milly, raising the back of her hand to her forehead in imitation. They don't just fall down right away. First they sway and stumble and grope about as if their vision were going dim," she explained, mimicking these movements as she explained them.

"Everything's going dark -- I feel so weak," she giggled, and then "Catch me!" she cried and flung herself backwards towards Lloyd.

"Hmm, if only I were the catching type," he said drily, and stepped aside, allowing her to fall into a large hibiscus bush.

Instead of being annoyed, she found herself laughing instead. She always enjoyed a good joke, and she felt slightly giddy from the rush of the fall she had taken. "Haha...oh...ooh, that hurts," she gasped between laughs, pressing a hand to her chest as she struggled to catch her breath against her dress' tightly laced bodice. "Maybe I shouldn't have....Oh, this time...I really can't..." she stammered, just before her eyes rolled back in her head and she sank back into the foliage, having fainted in earnest.

"I guess it really was a little too hot in that dress," Lloyd observed to himself, making a mental note to buy her a different style next time, before bending down to lift her out of the plant and leaning her on his shoulder. He pulled her towards a fortunately close bench, and eased her down onto her back, his arms under both of hers. He spotted a cheerily spouting fountain not too far away and made to extricate himself in order to retrieve some water out of it, thinking to at least cool Milly down some while she revived.

But the girl stirred and groaned at the movement. "Don't go..." she mumbled.

"I'm not going far," he explained, though he knew she wouldn't hear him.

"Don't..." she repeated instead, and, as if controlled by some involuntary force, slid her arms up around his neck and nestled her head into the white linen shirt on she had previously cast such aspersion. Lloyd had no choice but to sit down with her then, as she had effectively pinned most of him down anyway. Surprisingly enough, he didn't find it as awkward as it might have been. If she had purposely thrown herself into his arms for some silly emotional reason, that would have been one thing. But this was a simple case of exhaustion, much the same as when the fan in his laptop wore out from overuse -- not surprising since he often worked on it from early in the morning until far too late into the night.

Speaking of fans, Milly had dropped hers not far from the bench. Lloyd reached for it so as to provide some other way of cooling her, but she stirred again as he did so.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said anticipatorily, to which she settled down and slurred,

"It's nice...being..."

"Yes?" he asked absentmindedly, still reaching for the fan.

"...married..."

He didn't bother to correct her that they weren't married yet. He knew it she was only rambling in her delirium.

"I wouldn't want...anyone" she continued "...but you...." and with this her arms fell back, her head rolled heavily to one side, and she said no more.

Lloyd looked at her in some concern then. It shouldn't be taking her this long to recover, and her disorientation seemed to be getting worse rather than better. Surely she wouldn't say that if she were in her right mind, would she? Fearing something more serious than a simple faint, he began to unfasten the buttons on her collar, allowing her to breathe more freely. Blast that dress. She'd been right to complain about it. What could he have been thinking in buying it?

"Umm, Lloyd?" Milly's voice came to his ears, her words clear and precise. "What are you doing?"

He looked up from the button he had been working at so intently to see Milly's blue eyes blinking at him, curious but perfectly lucid.

"Oh, just saving you from hyperthermia," he said simply, careful not to let his recent panic show as he shrugged and raised his hands away from her. "You know you really did faint just now. I had to drag you all the way over here," he said, this time allowing a smile as he echoed her earlier prediction.

"I did?" she asked, rubbing her temples and sitting up gingerly.

"It was awful," he teased. "You almost rivalled Aunt Hidegunn."

"Oh, sorry about that," Milly blushed. She hated looking weak in front of other people. "I didn't mean to make you fuss over me. Not for real, anyway. And I'm feeling better now, so --"

"That's too bad," Lloyd cut in. "I was looking forward to hearing more of your secrets. You said some _very_ interesting things to me while you were out."

"Huh?!" she cried, suddenly feeling much more energized as blood rushed to her face. "What do you mean? Do I talk in my sleep? What did I say?" she demanded, her face growing pinker with each successive question.

"Careful, looks like you're getting overheated again," he laughed, pointing at her flushed cheeks.

"Oh you! You're terrible!" she said in exasperation. But Lloyd only laughed again, wondering if - and perhaps, in some secret corner of his mind, even entertaining a hope that - she really wouldn't have her fiance be any other way.

* * *

P.S. You get a cookie if you caught my allusions to two of my other favorite pairings - Jo x Laurie from _Little Women_ and Aeris x Cloud from _FF7_.


End file.
